Rosemary Harris to star in MTC's The Other Side

Manhattan Theatre Club (Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director; Barry Grove, Executive Producer) is pleased to announce that Tony Award-winner Rosemary Harris will star in the theatre's American premiere production of The Other Side, written by Ariel Dorfman (Death and the Maiden), and directed by Blanka Zizka (Yellowman) at NY City Center Stage I.

The Other Side will open December 6, 2005. Previews begin November 10, 2005.

Dorfman's moving, unexpectedly comic work is set in a war torn country where a man and a woman wait. They pass their days identifying the casualties. When peace and a border guard arrive, their bleakly predictable world unravels.

Rosemary Harris (Levana Julak) most recently appeared on the New York stage in Edward Albee's All Over for the Roundabout Theatre Company in 2002. Her Broadway credits include A Delicate Balance, Waiting in the Wings, An Inspector Calls, Hay Fever, Pack of Lies, Heartbreak House, The Royal Family, A Streetcar Named Desire, Old Times, The Lion in the Winter (Tony Award). Six years with APA, two years with APA-Phoenix at the Lyceum. Royal National Theatre: Women of Troy, The Petition, Hamlet, Uncle Vanya. Films: Spiderman, Spiderman 2, Sunshine, Tom & Viv (Academy Award nomination). Television: "Notorious Woman" (Emmy), "Holocaust" (Golden Globe), "To the Lighthouse," "Death of a Salesman." She has guest directed at the North Carolina School of the Arts and is married to the novelist John Ehle. Their daughter is Jennifer Ehle.

Ariel Dorfman (Playwright) is a Chilean novelist, playwright, essayist, journalist and human rights activist. Dorfman's family moved to the United States shortly after his birth, settling in Chile in 1954. He attended and was a professor at the University of Chile. Forced into exile following the Chilean military coup of 1973, he has divided his time between Santiago and the United States since the restoration (1990) of democracy in his homeland; since 1985 he has taught at Duke University. His plays include Death and the Maiden (also made into a film, directed by Roman Polanski), Purgartorio (debuting at Seattle Rep in December), and Picasso's Closet, debuting at Theatre J in Washington, D.C., in Spring, '06.

Blanka Zizka (Director) has been the co-Artistic Director of The Wilma Theater in Philadelphia since 1981. She has directed over 50 plays and musicals for the theater. Blanka recently directed the world premiere of Raw Boys by Dael Orlandersmith, Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train by Stephen Adly Guirgis, (Barrymore Winner, Best Overall Production and Best Director), the World Premiere of Embarrassments by Laurence Klavan and Polly Pen, the Philadelphia premieres of Lillian Groag's The Magic Fire and Chay Yew's Red. In 2002, she directed the world premiere of Dael Orlandersmith's Yellowman at the Manhattan Theatre Club, McCarter Theatre Center, Long Wharf Theatre, ACT in Seattle, and at The Wilma Theater. She was awarded the first Barrymore Award for Best Direction of a Play for Cartwright's Road. She directed Jiler and Leslee's Avenue X (Barrymore Winner, Best Overall Production of a Musical and Best Direction of a Musical), Wright's Quills (Barrymore Winner, Best Overall Production of a Play), and the East Coast premiere of The Invention of Love by Tom Stoppard (Barrymore Winner, Best Overall Production of a Play and Best Direction of a Play). Her other favorite productions include Orwell's Animal Farm, O'Neill's The Hairy Ape, Ionesco's Macbett, Fugard's Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act and Playland, Dulack's Incommunicado, Sherman's When She Danced, Stoppard's Travesties, Brecht's The Threepenny Opera, Freed's The Psychic Life of Savages, Klavan and Pen's Bed and Sofa, Sherwood's Spin, Thompson's Perfect Pie, Carr's Portia Coughlan, and Sherman's Patience.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, MTC has become one of the country's most prominent and prestigious theatre companies. Renowned MTC productions include Doubt, Proof, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Yellowman, Kimberly Akimbo, Love! Valour! Compassion!; Sylvia; Four Dogs and a Bone; Putting It Together; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; Crimes of the Heart; and Ain't Misbehavin'. In 2003, MTC reopened Broadway's long neglected landmark Biltmore Theatre, following a two-year, $35 million capital campaign.

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